Is SEC headed for a nine game conference schedule?

They will play whatever schedule will bring in the most money.

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You haven’t been paying attention. There is only one option that works, so that’s what will be done.

9 games, 3 annual matchups, no pods.

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How does that work exactly? Are we really talking semantics here? Show me an example of how that is laid out and how they pick the SEC Championship game opponents.

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How does that work exactly? Are we really talking semantics here? Show me an example of how that is laid out and how they pick the SEC Championship game opponents.

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It essentially works the same way as what the OP laid out except you don’t have groupings of 4 teams that all have each other as their 3 annual opponents. Each team would have its own unique group of 3 permanent rivals. Then like the OP has it laid out, each team would play 6 of the remaining 12 teams each year and the other 6 in the next year. There would be no divisions. The championship would match the teams with the two best records with some system of tiebreakers. It makes the most sense from a scheduling perspective, but I think the tiebreakers are going to be a nightmare.

9 games gives half of the league an extra loss, lowering the chances of getting multiple teams in the playoff. It’ll stay at 8 until the playoff expands.

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It essentially works the same way as what the OP laid out except you don’t have groupings of 4 teams that all have each other as their 3 annual opponents. Each team would have its own unique group of 3 permanent rivals. Then like the OP has it laid out, each team would play 6 of the remaining 12 teams each year and the other 6 in the next year. There would be no divisions. The championship would match the teams with the two best records with some system of tiebreakers. It makes the most sense from a scheduling perspective, but I think the tiebreakers are going to be a nightmare.

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I think maybe just rearranging the east west scenario

My thought was that a pod system worked well with one permanent in each 3 (so 3 permanents) or match based on last years finish like they do in the NFL with pod rotations. So like this. You have 4 pods A-D.

Year 1:
Pod A is matched with Pod B plus they plays permanents from C & D ( or the team that finished the same as them last year in C & D)
Pod C is matched with Pod D plus they plays permanents from A & B( or the team that finished the same as them last year in A & B)

Year 2:
Pod A is matched with Pod C plus they plays permanents from B & D ( or the team that finished the same as them last year in B & D)
Pod B is matched with Pod D plus they plays permanents from A & C( or the team that finished the same as them last year in A & C)

Year 3:
Pod A is matched with Pod D plus they plays permanents from B & C ( or the team that finished the same as them last year in B & C)
Pod B is matched with Pod C plus they plays permanents from A & D( or the team that finished the same as them last year in A & D)

Rinse repeat. You play every team in a three year period. The top team in a pairing of pods advances with tiebreakers set up like you would for a division.

9 SEC games per year.

That makes a ton of sense to me but WTF do I know


Appreciate your answer BTW. It was really helpful to me because I had not heard what the ideas were.

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My thought was that a pod system worked well with one permanent in each 3 (so 3 permanents) or match based on last years finish like they do in the NFL with pod rotations. So like this. You have 4 pods A-D.

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The “pods” and “no pods” options are effectively the same in that you have 3 permanent opponents every year and 6 rotating opponents.

The difference is that with pods, every team in the “pod” has the same permanent opponents (not counting any that are added outside of the pod) while without pods, every team has different permanent opponents.

So for example: Let’s say LSU is in a pod* with Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Texas A&M. Every year, these teams would have the following permanent opponents:
LSU: Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Texas A&M
Ole Miss: LSU, Mississippi State, Texas A&M
Mississippi State: LSU, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State

Now let’s say those are still LSU’s permanent opponents but without pods. The teams might have the following permanent opponents:
LSU: Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Texas A&M
Ole Miss: LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn
Mississippi State: LSU, Ole Miss, Arkansas
Texas A&M: LSU, Texas, Alabama

(*These examples are completely made up for the sake of argument. Don’t read into them.)

It gives you more flexibility with permanent opponents which ideally allows everyone to play 6 rotating games without sacrificing traditional rivalries. That means you play everybody in the conference over a 2 year period.

With pods, even one permanent opponent outside of the pod eliminates that possibility. But it’s basically impossible to keep everyone happy if pods have to share permanent opponents. Bama wants to play Tennessee and Auburn, Auburn wants to play Bama and Georgia, Georgia wants to play Auburn and Florida, etc.

Everything else - standings, tiebreakers, etc. - works the same for either system. (ETA: It works the same for the version of pods that’s been discussed the most.. not necessarily the same as the system you laid out which is basically rotating divisions.)

If anyone thinks the SEC won’t have Texas playing LSU every season, they’re crazy. That’s the two of largest brands and the states border each other.

LSU will drop miss state to play Texas yearly if we have to. It’s going to be a legit rivalry. You can book it.

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If anyone thinks the SEC won’t have Texas playing LSU every season, they’re crazy. That’s the two of largest brands and the states border each other.

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Texas seems like one of the few schools that has an easy 3 team permanent schedule; Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Arkansas. They have 3 classic rivals and Arkansas is a bit of a drop down in class compared to the other two. So, Texas won't feel like they are getting the shaft with difficulty. I'd be extremely surprised if we get Texas yearly.

They’re not doing pods, that was squashed at least two months ago (third paragraph of the link below from Ross Dellenger). They’re not doing divisions. It will be one 16-team league.

If they go to 9 games, you’ll play 3 teams every year, and 6 rotating opponents. But those 3 won’t be the other members of any set 4-team pod. Forget about the pod, roommate switch or any other hare-brained scheme drawn up by some dude from the newest fanboy.com site.

Also, Texas is not going to play A&M, Oklahoma and LSU every year. Teams in the top 8 will play 2 top 8 teams and one bottom 8. So Texas-LSU every year ain’t happening. Texas-Arkansas maybe but it depends on whether Arkansas gets matched with another top 8 instead of Texas. Arkansas is in the bottom 8 so they’d play two bottom 8s and a top 8.

This article explains the top 8/bottom 8 philosophy and which schools fall into which category.

Debate around SEC scheduling

Those groups will never fly with most of the conference